New pergola :)

My pergola is up! So it's over my swing bench and under trees, now I need some plants to grow up and over, I have been looking into it and been thinking about a variegated honeysuckle, evergreen clematis early sensation and clematis edouard desfosse for summer colour... Sound like an ok combo? The pergola is 10 foot square.

 

wisteria would be my choice , whats growing in the gravel , looks great

 

They are escallonia apple blossom, I wanted to create a small hedge to seperate two halves of the garden but think I'll have a long wait! As well as the dogs walking through them too! I have a young wisteria further up that I am trying to train up into two massive sycamores that I hate....

 

Looks great, ideal for summer lazy afternoons

 

Honeysuckle is nice, but in my experience it doesn't grow that quickly. If you mixed it with clematis, would the clematis not simply out-compete it and smother it?

 

Oh I don't know? I just thought I'd plant the two clematis on one side and honeysuckle on the other to meet in the middle Was trying to find a mixture of climbers to add more interest ok... So what would you plump for? Clay soil and full sun all day any suggestions apart from wisteria? I also have a jasmine already growing on trellis work and a seamanii on another trellis

 

I wouldn't recommend Honeysuckle as I seem to remember reading somewhere that it drips some sticky liquid when it flowers. Although I can't find anything to back this up on Google.

What about a climbing or rambling rose being planted up it instead? Roses love clay soil.

Was that a kit you bought or did you build it yourself? I presume you will be painting it too?

Me and Mr Jane are still in the design stage of or pergola. Is there any chance we could see how your braces underneath the roof are mounted to the structure please?

 

It was a kit and I wasn't going to paint it no, it is pressure treated timber and my thinking was once things start growing over it how do you repaint it? The rain looks like it has passed today so I'll get out and take some pics for you, the kit came with metal brackets and all the screws even tho hubby has put a few extra, some of the timbers were slightly bowed but nothing he couldn't handle for 260 quid we wasn't really expecting much but extremely pleased with the result!

 

Sooty mold (Alternaria) is a deep black fungus that forms a dark coating on the surface of honeysuckle leaves, branches and fruit. Sooty mold fungus feeds on honeydew, the clear, sticky, sweet substance secreted by honeysuckle aphids, whiteflies and mealybugs. The honeydew drops off of the insects and onto the honeysuckle plant. Wind-blown sooty mold fungal spores stick to the honeydew and begin growing. When the fungal spores germinate, they send out mycelial threads, or strands of black fungus. The black fungal strands cover plant tissue. While the sooty mold itself doesn't kill plants, a severe mold coating can screen out sunlight and decrease the plant's ability to make food.

Could this be what you were thinking junglejane?

 

What about Trachelospermum jasminoides, seen 1 at a local plant nursery, evergreen as well and highly scented

 

Sounds perfect Ian!i would like a rose but I don't think I'm ready for any divas... They seem so hard to look after... I was looking at a thornless rose reine des violettes, googling it it seems a perfect climber but in the garden center it's marked as a shrub rose??

 

It depends on how long you want to keep it for. I personally wouldn't rely solely on pressure treatment as this term has been used so loosely nowadays you do wonder who is really pressure treating them rather than say that orange stuff they paint on cheap sheds to keep them going for a few months and saying that it has indeed been pressure treated. Also a nice bright colour would contrast quite nicely with the green of whatever you intend to grow up it. Juts my two pence.

That's a lot of money! I think we've priced ours up at around £150 to build from scratch. Although I would love to buy a kit and have it erected in a weekend, but Mr Jane "wants to do things properly" and have them built to last.

Thanks for that. Could you ask your hubby (if you don't know) how the corner braces were joined to the legs and the support beams of the pergola please?

They look like they were mortised and tenoned from your picture but at the same time they could have been butt screwed in place. Did the main 4 posts have sockets in them to allow for the braces. A bit like this picture below?

No. You get that on other plants too. Perhaps I was thinking of another plant after all. I'm going senile in my old age.